Costa Rican general election, 1953

Costa Rican general election, 1953
26 July 1953
Turnout 67%

 
Nominee José Figueres Fernando Castro Cervantes
Party National Liberation Democratic
Home state Alajuela San José
Popular vote 294,016 67,324
Percentage 64.7% 35.3%
Provinces won by Figueres
President before election

Otilio Ulate
National Union

 Elected President

José Figueres
National Liberation

Costa Rica
This article is part of a series on the
politics and government of
Costa Rica

General elections were held in Costa Rica on 26 July 1953.[1] José Figueres Ferrer of the National Liberation Party won the presidential election, whilst his party also won the parliamentary election. Voter turnout was 67.2 percent in the presidential election and 67.5 percent in the parliamentary election.[2]

This was Costa Rica’s first election since the end of the 1948 Civil War, and democratic guarantees were not fully restored.

José Figueres, the caudillo of the victorious National Liberation Army faction in the Civil War, was the candidate of the newly founded National Liberation Party (PLN).[3] Liberal Mario Echandi tried to be the candidate from then-ruling National Union Party (PUN), but his candidacy was denied by the Electoral Tribunal due to purported irregularities in the adherents' signatures.[3] This move was highly criticized by Figueres' opponents as an action in favor of Figueres' candidacy.[3]

As PUN was unable to participate, the only other candidacy alternate to Figueres was made by the Democratic Party, which nominated wealthy industrial magnate Fernando Castro Cervantes.[3] The three parties—PLN, PUN and Democratic—were all formerly united in opposition against the 1940s governments of Rafael Angel Calderón and his allies, who were viewed as having caused the civil war. Yet, after the war, such unification ceased.[3]

The losing sides in the civil war, mostly the Republicans (Calderón supporters) and the Communists, were unable to participate as the Republicans' party was disbanded and the Communist Party was constitutionally outlawed.[3] The Republicans were nonetheless allowed to participate in the legislative ballot with a provincial party in San José called the "Independent" Republican Party, and thereby gained some seats. As expected, Figueres won by a landslide victory.[3]

Results

President

Popular Vote
National Liberation
 
 64.7%
Democratic
 
 35.3%
Candidate Party Votes %
José Figueres FerrerNational Liberation Party123,44464.7
Fernando Castro CervantesDemocratic Party67,32435.3
Invalid/blank votes6,721-
Total197,489100
Source: Nohlen

By province

Province % PLN % PD %
 San José 64.1 35.9
 Alajuela 67.8 32.2
 Cartago 75.0 25.0
 Heredia 62.5 37.5
 Puntarenas 58.4 41.6
 Limón 54.4 45.6
 Guanacaste 57.9 42.1
Total 64.7 35.3

Parliament

Popular Vote
National Liberation
 
 64.7%
Democratic
 
 21.2%
Ind. National Republican
 
 7.2%
National Union
 
 6.9%
Seats
National Liberation
 
 66.7%
Democratic
 
 24.4%
Ind. National Republican
 
 6.6%
National Union
 
 2.23%
Party Votes % Seats
National Liberation Party114,04364.730
Democratic Party67,32421.211
Independent National Republican Party12,6967.23
National Union Party12,0696.91
Invalid/blank votes22,140--
Total198,27010045
Source: Nohlen

By province

Province PLN PD PRN PUN
% S % S % S % S
 San José 64.7 10 11.4 2 17.3 3 6.6 1
 Alajuela 67.8 6 26.4 2 - - 5.7 0
 Cartago 75.5 5 18.2 1 - - 6.3 0
 Heredia 62.2 2 31.1 1 - - 6.3 0
 Puntarenas 59.1 3 36.0 2 - - 4.9 0
 Limón 55.0 1 30.7 1 - - 14.3 0
 Guanacaste 53.2 3 36.0 2 - - 10.8 0
Total 64.7 30 21.2 11 7.2 3 6.9 1

References

  1. ↑ Nohlen, D (2005) Elections in the Americas: A data handbook, Volume I, p155 ISBN 978-0-19-928357-6
  2. ↑ Nohlen, p156
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Hernández Naranjo, Gerardo. "Reseña de las elecciones presidenciales de 1953" (PDF) (in Spanish). Retrieved 13 April 2016.
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